


a catalog of non-definitive acts

by coricomile



Series: Video pre-canons [1]
Category: Bandom, Fall Out Boy, The Youngblood Chronicles (Music Video)
Genre: Gen, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-25
Updated: 2013-12-25
Packaged: 2018-01-06 00:52:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1100525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coricomile/pseuds/coricomile
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They suffer because they’ve always been too stupid to say yes to the rest of the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a catalog of non-definitive acts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ScratchyWilson](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScratchyWilson/gifts).



> I go looking for a shiny rare fandom for Yuletide treats, and end up still in Bandom. There's a problem here.

He knows what he’s getting himself into when he signs his name across the dirty lines on a sheet of printer paper. He knows the danger he’s putting himself into, the danger he’s putting _them_ into, but being dead is better than standing by and doing nothing as people turn the world into a rotting, ugly thing.

“You don’t have to do this,” he says to them, to his friends and brothers, as they stand beside him. Joe, with his tired eyes and bent wedding ring and six day beard doesn’t answer him. They suffer because they’ve always been too stupid to say yes to the rest of the world. 

One by one, they sign their names on the contract, selling their souls to save hundreds more. It’s funny, he thinks, that a piece of paper still means anything when everything that once mattered is now gone. He thinks of his wife and his home and the wreckage that is left of his life. 

It’s better to be dead. 

They collect their orders in silence, lined up like they’re going to be shot, and file out of the door. He wants to stay with them, curled together like they once had when they had been young and carefree and ready to change the world, but they split apart one by one to their separate homes to tie off their loose ends. 

Pete leaves last. He smiles, full of teeth and a vicious sort of energy that makes him look younger than he is. There’s a friendship bracelet in red and gold and baby blue wrapped around his wrist, the yarn decaying from wear. Patrick is not the only one who has lost someone dear to him. 

“I’ll do the dirty work,” Pete says, like he’s talking about chores. He thumbs that bracelet and gives Patrick a salute. “Not all of us can be the brains.” On his hands, Patrick can already see blood. 

They have one night of sleep, one night of being the boys they once were, and then there is a suitcase that might make the future brighter, and a set of handcuffs and the hope that they will succeed. 

They have to succeed.


End file.
